PHILADELPHIA — This was the kind of game history has come to expect from Rangers-Flyers. There weren’t any brawls, that’s not the NHL anymore, but Saturday night’s 3-2 Rangers shootout loss was intense, chippy and maybe more than a little bit dirty from the get-go.

“Right from the start, both teams were ready to go and ready to go at each other,” Marc Staal said. “I know we were excited about the challenge.”

Henrik Lundqvist was outstanding, turning in 46 saves with the Flyers creating time and space that resulted in too many glorious chances. But in the shootout, the King was beaten on a pair of backhands off dazzling dekes from Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux while only Derek Stepan could beat Steve Mason in the skills competition.

“It was definitely a challenging game,” said Lundqvist, who faced the third-most shots of his NHL career. “I thought there were two good teams playing well.

“But I’m very disappointed. I felt really good throughout the game but I should have re-set before the shootout. My timing was off. It’s disappointing.”

There were stretches through the first 60 minutes in which the clubs traded chances off open-ice plays but the majority of the match was contested in the dirty areas along the boards and in front of the net, with the Flyers generally able to dictate the terms of engagement.

This was the Rangers’ most contentious match of the young season through which they are 5-2-2 heading into Sunday’s Garden contest against the Flames, and for the most part they battled well, even if they coughed up the puck and were caught out of position far too often.

Viktor Stalberg will not be available to play against the Flames, having sustained a suspected concussion on an open-ice, neutral zone blow from defenseman Radko Gudas with 1:06 remaining in the second period. No penalty was called on the hit that was delivered with Stalberg being hawked and defenseless as he reached for the puck.

“That was probably the definition of a blindside, direct hit to the head,” Staal told The Post. “The guy came from the side, [Stalberg] couldn’t see him and he made contact with his chin first.

“That’s what I saw.”

Gudas, by the way, is the same fellow who missed a cheap-shot open ice run at Stepan during the Sept. 28 exhibition game between the clubs at the Garden.

Coach Alain Vigneault, who lost the first coach’s challenge in Rangers history when the officials did not reverse an incidental contact, no-goal call against Jarret Stoll at 11:45 of the second period that would have given his team a 3-2 lead, was not happy with the hit and no-call on Gudas.

“For me, the principal point of contact was the head,” Vigneault said. “We’ll see what the league says.”

A Flyer also went down in the match. Michael Raffl collapsed on the bench at 2:58 of the second period moments after he took what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow from Stoll as the Blueshirts’ forward was protecting the puck.

Stoll expressed shock after the contest when asked about the elbow, professing to have no idea that he’d come into contact at all with Raffl.

“What, me? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “I hit him with my elbow? I hope I didn’t have anything to do with that. They told us that he’d gotten hit with the puck on the bench. I don’t know.”

Predictably, and accurately, Stoll said he could not understand why his “goal” was waved off both originally and then again upon the challenge. There was some bumping in front as he went to the net looking for loose change, but nothing untoward.
“I’m not biased,” said No. 26. “But I thought it should have counted.”

Derick Brassard and J.T. Miller got the goals for the Blueshirts. But tied entering the third, the Blueshirts were outshot 17-9 over the final 20 minutes of regulation, saved only by Lundqvist until he could not make quite enough saves in the shootout.